Billy Edwards: Don't let excuses distance you from God's plan

Billy Edwards

11:57 AM, May 11, 2013

As I write this article from week to week, I always do it with a prayer that what the Lord leads me to write will be a blessing to all who read it. I like to think of this article as more than just a column that appears in The Gleaner, but a personal letter between friends.

I could not do this on my own without the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It may seem odd to the average person, but I truly feel as if I write under the direction the Spirit of God.

It is like when I feel I have nothing to write about, the Lord just takes control of my mind and heart to give me the words He would have me say.

I hope you don't mind me getting a little personal with you today, but I feel strongly that I should share with you a little of my personal testimony of how I first got started writing for the Lord. Some of you know me and are aware of my physical condition of cerebral palsy.

Perhaps the greatest way my condition hinders me is my inability to talk plainly. Until people get to know me and the way I talk, they have a very hard time communicating with me.

This is why writing has become such an important skill for me. It is a means of sharing my thoughts, ideas, feelings and faith in a way that they can understand and, hopefully, appreciate.

It is not easy living with a serious speech impediment such as mine, but I am thankful for others' patience and indulgence. When people hear me speak for the first few times, they often feel intimidated and tend to shy away from me because they can't make out what I say. They are afraid they might hurt my feelings if they can't understand me or ask me to repeat myself too many times.

What they fail to comprehend is that I have had to deal with my speech impediment all my life. In my life, I have found that there is more than one way to communicate with people. When all else fails, I write people notes on my computer.

I hesitate to get too much into my personal testimony because I think most of my reading audience is already familiar with it and I don't want to bore you in repeating it too often. I received Christ as my Savior back in 1973 while a student at a small Christian school. I was 15.

After I started growing in my faith, I felt the Lord leading me into some kind of full-time Christian service. I could not understand how He could use someone like me with so little to offer.

I could not talk plain enough where people could make out much of anything that I was saying. Back then, I was able walk, although not all that well.

I soon discovered that the Lord wasn't concerned about all of my so-called excuses.

It is a very humbling and awesome experience to proclaim the Gospel through this newspaper each week.

Like most people called to serve the Lord in some way, whether it is teaching Sunday School, standing behind a pulpit each week or just sharing your faith with a neighbor, I at times feel so unworthy to do what I feel the Lord has called me to do.

We have to be reminded, though, that we have an adversary that is ready to attack us at every turn. He will defeat us if he can, but we must not allow the devil to get us down.

But we have the God of all truth, mercy, grace and love on our side. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8, "If God be for us, then who can be against us?" The answer to this most pointed question is clear and most evident: nobody.

When we feel like nothing that we do really matters and that the things we do for our neighbor in the name of the Lord doesn't amount to much, we would do well to remember the words of the Apostle John when he said, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."

I know that many modern-day thinkers and those with a so-called "open mind" who will not accept the glorious truth of the wondrous Gospel, that within itself can liberate their captive soul and bring freedom to their hearts and life.

The Lord came to save all those who will accept Him by faith for the forgiveness of sins. He said in John 6, "Whosoever will come to me, I will in no wise cast out."

Critics will dismiss this great truth as being just "religious talk" that doesn't make any sense to them or their way of thinking. But I plead with you today, don't cheat yourself out of the greatest blessings of life.

Invite the Savior into your life and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and wash from you every stain by the purity of His blood.